Come spin with me...

Pirouetting through the day (plus May's sketches so far)

Dearest Friend,

This morning we ate breakfast, took our vitamins, practised piano, did a mock spelling test, and then walked up the steep hill to school because there was construction on our road, and it would have taken longer to drive. Then I raced back down the hill to get home before our once-a-month cleaner arrived. I still needed to pick toys up off the floor, fold laundry, and fetch the vacuum out of the packed utility cupboard, hoping the brooms wouldn’t fall on my head.

All before 9 am.

Then I started the work day…

Sound familiar?

It’s enough to make one’s head spin.

I’m sure you can relate.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of spinning recently. No matter what I do, life seems to move at a pace that keeps me feeling off balance. I’m never quite sure if I’m coming or going, or if I’m even moving in the right direction.

The other day my daughter and I were on our hands and knees spinning wooden spinning-tops on the floor. The game was this: before flicking the stem of the tops with our fingers, we guessed which top would stop spinning first.

Sometimes the red one toppled first; sometimes the yellow one did. The results seemed to depend on multiple factors. How fast we spun them. Or, if there were any irregularities on the floor that might change their direction or momentum.

But, what struck me deep in my core was that when they stopped spinning, they fell over. Their spinning state was necessary for them to balance. (See… my thoughts on entropy.)

The earth spins. The sun spins. Every celestial body in the universe spins (even black holes, though they seem to spin through warped spacetime… which feels like my life most days.)

Is spinning a requirement for existence?

When my daughter’s spinning-tops spin, it is quite easy to see that the outer ring of the wooden circle spins faster than the inner rings, or even the axis.

There is a central point in any spinning object that barely spins at all. That point is at rest. In theory, it is motionless.

This might be that calm centre that we all strive for. That feeling that, despite the craziness of daily life, we have a greater purpose, that all this striving and worrying will be worth it in the end. It is a nugget of energy deep within us that keeps us calm and reassures our direction in life.

A decade ago I took recreational ballet classes with the Cape Town Ballet. The ballet company’s teachers taught adult classes to anyone who wanted to learn ballet and keep fit. Eventually, after learning the basics of basics, I learned to pirouette. I managed to make one revolution at a time with correct starting and ending positions without tumbling onto my derrière.

The secret of a pirouette is to hold your core muscles strong so that you create a steady axis around which to turn. Then you pick one point to look at with your eyes. You lock your eyes on that one point and then whip your head around at the last minute to find that point again. That eye-line keeps the dizziness at bay.

This sounds so much like that still point at the centre of a spinning object.

“Hold strong! Fo-cus! And TURN!” My ballet mistress would shout in rhythm to the music.

Do famous zen authors like Pema Chödrön or Eckhart Tolle ever feel like their lives are spinning out of control? Or can they maintain their implacable calmness in the face of all difficulties? What if they arrive at a speaking venue, but the script of their speech was smudged when it was printed, and they didn’t sleep well, and on top of it all, their cat needs to go to the vet, and someone forgot to water their house plants. Would they get in a flap? Do they have their eyes locked on a still point to keep them focused? Is their calm centre so anchored that they never flutter an eyelid in panic or wobble off-balance?

It might be something to aspire to. But for the moment, I’m taking comfort in the fact that if I feel like my life is spinning, I’m in good company with all the other planets.

So, here we all are, spinning through our crazy, rich, exciting lives while living on a spinning planet in a spinning universe.

Or perhaps we’re pirouetting instead of spinning? That sounds so much more creative and intentional. And perhaps thinking of it as a pirouette will prevent us from feeling dizzy by the end of the day.

May you find that still, calm centre within yourself today.

It is there.

Sending virtual hugs,

Jane

P.S. Please hit the heart to send some love my way!

P.P.S. This is a long-ish email with lots of good things in it. If it gets clipped in your inbox, just click “View entire message”.

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Let’s spin some tunes…

The second instalment of my creativity interview is Jill Barber. She is probably my favourite jazz musician, and she has a new French language jazz album coming out in June. It is called Encore! It is inspired by Edith Piaf, among other classic French jazz singers.

On listening to the preview album, my daughter said that it sounded like she was standing at the top of of the Eiffel tower with her best friend while hearing the heartbeat of Paris all around. I think this perfectly sums up the combination of Jill’s singing voice with the deliciously rich orchestrations.

On this album Jill collaborated with Drew Jurecka, who was nominated for a Grammy award for his instrumental arrangements for Dua Lipa.

Jill’s Encore! is not to be missed! It launches June 14. But I believe that there might a few tracks already available to stream on Spotify, if you’re impatient to hear it.

Jill’s EVERYDAY CREATIVITY answers…

1. What is your favourite hot drink?

Coffee with cream

2. Do you have any creative routines? Things that you do regularly to keep your creative muscles strong, or before you start a creative session? 

Go for a long walk, listen to whatever albums have been inspiring me lately (currently it's Kasey Musgraves' Deeper Well)

3. Planning your life: do you use digital devices for schedules and to do lists, or paper, or a mix? (all of our brains organize things differently!) 

I still devoutly use a Moleskine daily planner for all my scheduling, and always a mechanical pencil- never a pen! 

4. Are there any paintings, poems, books, songs, movies or shows that you return to repeatedly for inspiration? 

I find the greatest amount of inspiration from new works- whether it be a film or an album or a book. I recently read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, and the writing was so evocative and cracked me right open... that's a good state to write from.

5. Where in the world are you based? Does your location influence your work?

I live in Vancouver, British Columbia. I write a lot about my internal world, but I think inevitably where you live informs how you live, and how you write.

6. Do you have any favourite supplies to work with? (writing supplies, art supplies, music supplies, craft supplies, apps…?) 

My constant writing companion for the last 15 years has been my 1910 vintage Washburn parlour guitar. She's an absolute beauty.

7. Do you keep a journal? Or a notebook in which to jot inspiration and ideas? If so, do you write by hand or on a device?

This is one instance where my iphone comes in really handy- I use the voice memo app to record any song snippet ideas I have. Whether I'm walking down the street, or wake in the middle of the night- I can just hit record and capture whatever melody or line pops into my head. And then I have a little bank of ideas stored on my phone when I sit down to write.

8. Do you have a dedicated space for your creative work? Or not? (Sometimes the kitchen table can be the most creative place in the house!)

Any private space will do- as long as it's out of other people's earshots!

9. What do you do when you feel creatively blocked? Do you have any tricks that help to jump-start your creative soul?  

Whenever I'm stuck I turn to collaboration. Co-writing with other artists I admire will always kickstart my creativity.

10. What advice would you give yourself if you could travel in time to visit your younger self?

That one single work doesn't define you. An artist's body of work is built up over a lifetime, and each work contributes something to it. I find this perspective takes the pressure of "perfection" off, and reframes each work as just one part of a bigger picture. 

11. If someone doesn’t know your work, where should they start?

Love 'em or hate 'em, all the music streaming services offer a "This is Jill Barber" type of playlist that is a good sampling of songs from my catalogue.

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May’s sketchbook (so far…)